Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIProgressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championships Round 1 : Daytona Municipal Stadium his first and only AMA Grand National victory. He had used his low line to success in each of those years, and he used it again to successfully shake off Tysor after the two battled back and forth on laps five and six. "I really can't complain," Landes said. "I was a little disappointed because I figure if I had the bike that I used last night, I could have run with Will. But another top-five? I can't complain. It was just a different bike, and we were just trying to get comfortabe. It wasn't really the bike. It was me. The first few laps were so unbelievable that I can't even remember what happened. There was a lot of swapping, and I thought Kevin Varnes was going to go flying into the hay bales on the front straightaway one time. Then everybody settles in and you just try and go forward. But top-five? That goes all the way back to the first time that I ever came here [1994 J. That's cool." For the 41-year-old Tysor, a former 600cc Supersport road racer who was practically unheard of before making his first Daytona Short Track main event some four years ago, times certainly have changed - so much so that the Georgian may even be worthy of consideration as a challenger for the win if he should decide to return to the Short Track in 2002. This year, Tysor made his presence known several ways, first by crashing on his face during Friday night's main event, then by grinding his way past Rick Winsett "short-track style" to steal a starting spot on the second row in heat five. He then continued his charge in the main event, swimming through the field to engage Landes in a criss-cross duel during the early going of the final. Tysor parlayed all of this pluckiness into his first career Grand National top-five finish, a far cry from the days when he was just happy to make the 60rider cut at the start of the day. "I didn't make any friends tonight, but that's okay: Tysor said. "I had fun. I fully intended on just poleputting for the first couple laps, until I found out that I had to start on the outside. So I just banzai'd the outside for the first couple laps. You had to be really soft on the gas because it was hard and slimy. If you rode too hard, you just went backwards. But my bike worked good all week long, and we just had it dialed, I think." A top five for Tysor. "Yes," Tysor replied. And when asked if he had plans to be on the podium in 2001, the answer was identical. Heartland Harley-Davidson's Donnie Steward, a push, because Carr sure had to in order to get that far up in the field. To start with, Carr missed the transfer in his heat race, and was forced to win the most entertaining semi of the night, a three- and sometimes four-rider war with J.R. Schnabel, John Nickens III and Rich King that had the crowd on its feet at every turn, Carr got no rest in the main event either, as he faced another war with Steward and Saddlemen Racing/Lancaster Harley-Davidson's Mike Hacker just to get that spot. The three men represented the best battle on the track in the main event, using every different line in the book, with each grabbing a turn at the sixth spot. Steward ultimately prevailed for sixth. "I was just happy to make it," Steward said. "I didn't get a very good start, so I was just trying to be consistent. I talked to Ronnie Jones right before the main event. He came down and introduced himself. I'd never really met him before, but I have his number now. He told me to stay on the bottom and be consistent. It worked. To be honest, I didn't even know Carr was in there. I was busy working on Hacker. He wasn't making any mistakes, so I ended up going around him." Carr was the first to commend Steward on a job well done. "Steward was riding real good," Carr said. "I had a decent start and moved up a little bit, and then I stalled the motor and dropped to dead last - 10 bike lengths behind dead last. To pick off nine guys here llYes/' he said. Two-time Daytona Short Track winner and two-time series champion Chris Carr has obViously fared better, and worse, at Municipal Stadium. So call his seventh-place finish, behind 28 ,MARCH 21, 2001 • cue I • n • __ s from dead last, I'm pleased. There wasn't anything unusual about the track over any other year. When we come here on Saturday night, we know that it's not going to take a whole lot of rubber; it's going to have to pick your way through the holes and try to keep it from spinning too much. This year was no different. Will Davis had that figured out. He was gone. I never saw him after about the third lap. I was pleased with where we ended up when you compare that to where we were. I'm never happy with a seventh-place finish, but this is Daytona, the first race of the year. I've seen a lot of factory guys on the truck. Tonight was one occasion like that. I'm just glad to get out of here with a decent number of points." Hacker, who had started the Carr/Steward/Hacker fray in sixth place, actually found just a bit of humor in the fact that he finished eighth when it was all over. The race of the night: Chris Carr (4) survived a war with Rich King (80), John Nickens III (17) and J.R. Schnabel (33) for the lone transfer spot in the third semi. Carr eventually held off Schnabel, and then went tQ finish seventh in the main event. '" kept thinking that they had a better line than me, so I went up there and tried it," Hacker said. "Then they both used my line to pass me. I made a bad judgement, but it went all right. I'm leaving here with some points. I've only done that one other time. I'm happy with that. The bike was running good. TLC built that motor for us. n The remainder of the 16-rider field pretty much ran to the finish in a processional, Dan Stanley grabbing ninth ahead of Robert Lewis and Johnny Murphree. Shawn Clark finished 13th, ahead of the returning Dan Butler (see Briefly), Kenny Coolbeth and Bryan Bigelow. The Yoshimura Suzuki entry of J.R. Schnabel wasn't the only new bike to debut at Daytona during the Bike Week flat-track races. Harley-Davidson rolled out its latest experiment, a CGJ-framed, Buell Blast·based short-tracker, out of the truck for the first time. Factory wrench Bill Werner gave us a few details on the bike, which has been christened the 500R. "It has a standard bore and stroke, titanium valves, solid tappets, aluminum pushrods and an XR ignition," Werner said. "We haven't even been able to do as much camshaft and exhaust development as we would have liked. Our exhaust system development con· sists of figUring out the measurements in order to make it fit on the bike." Factory riders Rich King and Jennifer Snyder have both tested the machine, with King reportedly offering a lot of positive feedback on its performance. "Rich likes it a lot," Werner said. "Jennifer is obviously more used to her Rotaxes. But I can tell you that we ran some single-cylinder bikes in the Formula USA series last year, and we've got some numbers on those. Based on those numbers, this bike is as good, if not better, than those." Snyder may ride the machine at a few events this season, but Werner said that the team will field ber on whatever motorcycle she feels most comfortable aboard.

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